Not unethical per se, but a very bad idea

The Virginia State Bar Committee on Legal Ethics has trouble imagining a circumstance when sex with a client would not be a violation of legal ethics but stops short of finding such a relationship to be unethical per se in Legal Ethics Opinion 1853.

After outlining the manifold ethical problems created by having sex with a client, the committee concluded in the opinion issued last week: “[A] a lawyer should refrain from entering into a sexual relationship with a client. In most situations, the client’s ability to give the informed consent required by Rule 1.7(b) is overwhelmed by the lawyer’s position of power and influence in the relationship and the client’s emotional vulnerability.”
By Alan Cooper